Research Paper on:
Matthew Arnold/Dover Beach

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
Arnolds poem "Dover Beach." The boy struggles through the poem as if he were decoding a foreign language when he suddenly experiences an epiphany of enlightenment and says, "Yeah, yeah,  that makes some sense. The worlds fucked up, but the dudes in there with some fox, so he dont give a shit" (Taylor 53). While this sentiment is crudely phrased,  it is also a rather concise summation of the gist of Arnolds poem, which expresses Arnolds negative reaction against the effects of industrialization on England in the nineteenth century and  also his faith in the redeeming power of love. The poem begins with Arnold focusing on the sea and picturing its romantic beauty for the reader. "The sea  is calm tonight/The tide is full, the moon lies fair/Upon the straight--on the French cost the light/Gleams and is gone" (lines 1-4). The poet describes the "glimmering" cliffs of England  and invites a companion to come to the window and observe the pristine and awesome beauty of the natural scene. In the closing lines of this stanza, Arnold emphasizes  the timelessness of the scene, that is, how the drama of the sea is never ceasing. In this first stanza, Arnold sets the stage for his revelry on the human  condition by evoking a beautiful, timeless picture of natural beauty. In the second stanza, he uses the sea as a metaphor to connect himself to the past. Arnold points  out that "Sophocles long ago" heard the sea "and it brought/Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow/ Of human misery" (lines 15-18). According to Abrams, et al, the  editors of The Norton Anthology of English Literature, this is a direct reference to the Greek playwright Sophocles play Antigone, referring to line 583 (Abrams, et al 1039). The